270. The Future of Work Is Here and HR Isn't Ready

270. The Future of Work Is Here and HR Isn't Ready

From Bringing the Human back to Human Resources by Traci Chernoff

March 31, 2026 · 48 min

About this episode

Traci Chernoff interviews Steve Cadigan about the demands of the future of work on HR leaders and the challenges organizations face in adapting.

This week, Traci sits down with Steve Cadigan to explore what the future of work actually demands from HR leaders and why most organizations are still building for a world that no longer exists. Steve is a globally recognized talent strategist, advisor, author, and founder of Cadigan Talent Ventures. Best known as LinkedIn's first CHRO, he helped scale the company from 400 employees through its IPO. His book Work Quake debuted as Amazon's #1 Hot New Release and a graduate-level course at Stanford was built around the culture he helped create. In this conversation, Steve shares the frameworks, hard lessons, and contrarian thinking that have shaped his career and what they mean for HR leaders navigating today's workplace. What We Cover: Why high turnover might actually be your competitive advantage The two things every HR leader must have and why you can't have one without the other What LinkedIn taught Steve about building HR completely from scratch Why working yourself out of a job makes you more valuable, not less The happiness trap that's quietly leading organizations toward mediocrity Why "Head of Diversity" might be creating more problems than it solves Where AI…

People in this episode

Host: Traci Chernoff

Guest: Steve Cadigan

Topics covered

  • future of work
  • HR leadership
  • talent strategy
  • organizational culture
  • high turnover
  • AI in HR

Keywords

  • HR leaders
  • competitive advantage
  • diversity
  • employee turnover
  • AI leverage
  • organizational mediocrity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: LinkedIn, Cadigan Talent Ventures, Stanford

Books & works: Work Quake

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